Many such hand-held tooth brushing devices are known. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,209, Australian Patent 449, 836 and Belgium Patent 640,683. However, these prior devices do no more than enable a user to brush both faces of his teeth at one time, rather than doing them separately with a brush having a single set of bristle thereon. And in brushing the faces, he is largely limited to strokes lengthwise of a row. The devices themselves provide none Of the additional "dynamics" or criss-cross action that we commonly put our brush through when brushing our teeth, and which we generate by raising and lowering the brush, by pressing harder or softer at times, and by swiveling the brush about our wrist, or about the palm of our hand with our fingers. All of this still must come from the user himself, and in the case of devices such as those shown in the Australian and Belgium patents, the user is largely prevented from generating these dynamics by the character of the device itself. In addition, in the case of a device such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,209, the user must adjust for himself, the light clamping action or "grip" with which the bristle are applied to the faces of the teeth; while in the case of devices such as those shown in the Australian and Belgium patents, he must be content with the predetermined grip provided by the device itself. Moreover, the user himself must locate and "steer" each device, and particularly the jaws and brushes or other implement on the same. He must, in effect, observe its path and guide the device by sight, to assure that it "tracks" along the faces, and equally importantly, the gums therebelow. There is no assurance that the device will sweep the gums unless he, himself, steers the device so that the bristle continue to bear against the gums throughout the operation. Any "moat-like" pockets between the teeth and gums, at the gum line, are left untouched, moreover, because the bristle do not have the firmness or rigidity of a "pick" to dislodge debris that may be collected on them. Also, neither device provides for cleaning the interstices between pairs of teeth, such as is commonly done with dental floss. And, in addition, neither provides for flushing away the debris which is generated during the various cleaning operations, whether from the faces of the teeth or from the interstices between pairs of teeth. Neither provides, too, for substituting a new tooth cleaning implement for an old one, when the life of the old one is spent; or for replacing an old implement with a new one, when the new one would be better suited to the task at hand; or as indicated, for adjusting the "grip" of each new implement when it is put to use on a device.
What is needed then, is a straddle-type tooth cleaning device which enables the user to program or predetermine the "grip" of the device, to locate and "steer" the device--even when the jaws and brushes or other implement are out of sight to him--and to count on the device itself to provide the "dynamics" with which we commonly use a conventional "toothbrush" when we manipulate it in our mouths from a point thereoutside. All of this is needed, moreover, in the context of one which has an interchangeable or replaceable tooth cleaning implement, and particularly one which is adjustable in "grip" each time a new implement is substituted. And furthermore, all of this is needed in the context of one which will clean both gums and teeth alike, as well as dislodge debris from any pockets at the gum line, and clean the interstices between pairs of teeth, as well as flush away the debris which is generated by the device during each of the various cleaning operations.